Southern District

For the week April 12-18:

Ocean: High winds and seas kept boats from venturing offshore last week. Fishing was a little slow since the warm water was still located offshore. There were some wahoos and blackfin tuna caught, but not in any real good numbers yet. Boats that were vertical jigging did very well on cobias, African pompano and other various reef fish. Closer to shore, reefs in the 10- to 20-miles offshore range produced nice sea bass and an occasional flounder. The Atlantic bonito should start showing up along area beaches and near-shore reefs any day now.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Fishing improved over the past couple of weeks with the warming water temperatures. The most improvement was with speckled trout fishing. The bays and creeks behind Bald Head Island, the grass islands in the southern part of the Cape Fear River, and the rock jetty at Little River were the most consistent spots. Drum fishing was in these same general locations, as well. Most fish were being caught on the new scented soft plastic baits. Sea mullet were starting to bite in the Cape Fear River toward the river mouth. Falling water seemed to be the best time to catch them. It is still a little early, but there were some flounder caught by fisherman using mud minnows on Carolina rigs fishing in area creeks and around boat docks.

Piers/Shore: Fishing improved in this area, as well. Piers started to see some good catches of sea mullet, along with bluefish and puffers. Surf fishermen reported the same: sea mullet and a few blues. Fishing should only improve as the water continues to warm.


http://www.ncdmf.net/fishreport/southdist.html